The Arunachal Pradesh unit of Congress has accused Pema Khandu’s Bharatiya Janata Party government of arm-twisting villagers to support the Siang Upper Multi-purpose Project (SUMP) in the central part of the State.
There is no official word on the size of the hydropower project. Still, activists and villagers fearing large-scale displacement claim SUMP would entail a mega dam across the Siang River to generate 11,500 megawatts of electricity. India is reportedly pushing the project as a counterweight to China’s planned 60,000 MW project across the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet’s Medog county.
Arunachal villagers protest security put up for proposed dam
The Yarlung Tsangpo is the upstream of Siang, which meets two other rivers – Dibang and Lohit – in Assam to flow down as the Brahmaputra up to the Bangladesh border.
“Central forces have been stationed in the Siang River belt to facilitate pre-feasibility surveys for the project. These forces are harassing innocent villagers, underscoring the government’s dictatorial approach,” Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Bosiram Siram said in the State’s capital, Itanagar, on Friday (August 8, 2025).
